Doctor Who's Peter Capaldi Explains Why The Show's Regenerations Have "Diminished"

Nearly a decade after his departure from Doctor Who, Peter Capaldi shared the issue he now has with the show’s trademark regenerations.

After a teasing, eyes-only cameo in “The Day of the Doctor,” Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary special, Capaldi made his full debut as the Twelfth Doctor at the end of “The Time of the Doctor,” succeeding Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor. Four years later, the time came for Capaldi to leave as well, resulting in his incarnation of the Time Lord regenerating into Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor. Yet, even though regenerations have been an integral component of Doctor Who for nearly the entirety of its existence, Capaldi believes they have “diminished.”

He shared these thoughts while appearing on 100 Questions with Tom Simons. When the podcast’s host asked him what it was like filming his regeneration scene for 2017’s “Twice Upon a Time,” Capaldi answered that it was “very sad,” then continued:

To be perfectly honest, I think there are too many regenerations. I love all the Doctors, but I've lost count now of how many of them there are, so the weight of this kind of regeneration is diminished. Whereas when I grew up as a kid, the first time it happened it was: 'What just happened there?' It was mysterious and strange. It holds the mystery of the show, the regeneration.

Regeneration was introduced to Doctor Who in the 1966 serial “The Tenth Planet” as a way to explain Patrick Troughton taking over as the show’s new lead from William Hartnell, whose health was failing. However, at that time, this transformation was described as a “renewal,” and no specifics about the process were revealed. It wasn’t until after the official introduction of the Time Lords in “The War Games,” followed by Jon Pertwee’s Third Doctor regenerating into Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor, that details about regeneration started being revealed.

On the one hand, regeneration has allowed Doctor Who to continue going more than 60 years after it premiered. On the other hand, Capaldi believes it’s lost much of its allure compared to those earlier depictions of The Doctor changing form. However, he also acknowledged that the process functions as a “powerful death motif,” while simultaneously being “magical.”

Capaldi’s final Doctor Who appearance saw the Twelfth Doctor adventuring with the First Doctor, played this time around by David Bradley. Both Doctors initially refused to regenerate, but their adventure with Mark Gatiss’ Archibald Hamish Lethbridge-Stewart and a duplicate of Pearl Mackie’s Bill Potts resulted in them changing their minds. “The Time of the Doctor” provided a different perspective on the First Doctor’s final moments, and Capaldi’s exit paved the way for a woman to take over as the show’s lead.

Though Capaldi isn’t interested in returning to Doctor Who, the Twelfth Doctor has since been voiced by Jacob Dudman and Jon Culshaw in Big Finish audio productions. Capaldi currently stars in the Apple TV series Criminal Record, and the Doctor Who TV series is on indefinite hiatus following the BBC scrapping the 2026 Christmas special and putting the show out to competitive tender.

Release Date 2005 - 2022-00-00

Directors Graeme Harper, Euros Lyn, Douglas Mackinnon, Jamie Magnus Stone, Charles Palmer, Rachel Talalay, Joe Ahearne, James Strong, Jamie Childs, Saul Metzstein, Toby Haynes, Wayne Che Yip, Nick Hurran, Richard Clark, James Hawes, Daniel Nettheim, Colin Teague, Keith Boak, Azhur Saleem, Adam Smith, Andrew Gunn, Nida Manzoor, Lawrence Gough, Paul Murphy

Writers Steven Moffat, Russell T. Davies

• 

  Jodie Whittaker

  The Doctor

•